Venice - The best (or worst) Civ?
Venice is the only Civ I've never played. The gimmick has always put me off, but I thought I'd try them out to see how it works. What followed was 2 very, very different games.
Settings: Pangea, Standard Speed, Deity, 8 civs/16 city states
Game 1 - Turn 317 Science (Awful fluke victory)
In my first game, I took the most logical steps I could see. Rushed National College/Great Lighthouse, and annexed 4 city states. Got Porcelain Towers and had a chain of 4 research agreements constantly going - seemed okay for a while. However, what followed was the narrowest Science game I've ever faced, where every one of Venice's gimmicks felt like a disadvantage.
Once I reached Plastics, I realised I was stuck at about 580 beakers/turn, due to the 1 city limit. From here, everything got worse; I decided to conquer Arabia to improve my beakers, but my slow science meant I didn't reach Bombers/RocketArt until T250~. I barely conquered two cities, and still only hit 820 beakers/turn. I couldn't contest the ISS project - because I only had 1 city - allowing France to take it and eventually surpass me on tech.
My 7 City empire produced a measly 850 beakers/turn. Disappointing.
The only thing going my way was my Venice-y stack of gold. I purchased 5 atomic bombs, dropped them on France, and barely bought enough time to win a Science victory by a single spaceship part. I left the game feeling that Venice was awful; any other civ could have won at least 50 turns sooner.
France surpassed me on tech, and I couldn't compete with anyone militarily
A nuke barrage bought me enough time to turn the game around
T317 - Venice barely beats France by a handful of turns
However, I noticed towards the end of the game I was coming close to winning via Diplomacy - despite not even aiming for that victory. I reloaded and tried focusing purely on diplomacy instead.
Game 2 - Turn 230 Diplomatic Victory (my fastest Deity win ever)
This game began with scout>scout>worker, and I got a huge number of runes - including 2 culture and 2 pop runes. Therefore, there was a period between Calendar and Philosophy where I had literally nothing to build - I already stole/built enough workers, and didn't need military. So I trained 2 extra scouts and sent them out in different directions, searching every pocket of the map to find all the city states. I also trained 2 warriors, and donated them both to maintain some early CS friendships.
Early CS quests/friendships help me secure a religion + some wonders
I race to National College, and managed to snag Oracle and G Lighthouse using the Tradition +15% policy. I used my first two Great Merchants to puppet the nearest 2 cities; by Turn 100, I had a city empire, and most importantly, 2 food trade routes running to Venice. I figured that if I'm aiming for Diplo win, I should either found the World Congress, or get Forbidden Palace. Someone already had banking, so I opted to rush Education, then go back and beeline Printing Press. With a good spy steal of Chivalry, I'm first to Printing Press, and manage to get Leaning Tower to boot.
My enormous capital keeps me competitive on science/production
From Printing Press > Radio/Plastics, I'm playing a typical science game, except I filled out Patronage all the way to Scholasticism. I quickly find myself with 5 CS allies, pumping me full of culture, food, happiness and science. With all my gold income from trade routes, I have some 150-200GPT which is enough to sustain 4-5 research agreements whilst slowly buying out all city states. I decide to plant my first 2 scientists, as I predict I won't be able to bulb for much later. Promising.
5 RA's and 5 CS allies keep my science on track
Fast forward a few turns, and I get a phenomenal timing on my ideology - I'm 1 turn fast enough to propose Freedom as world ideology, long before any other Civ's have reached their ideologies and would be angry with me. I use my free GE (from leaning tower) on Eiffel Tower; +2 Great Merchant points go brrrr. I'm starting to lead the pack on Science, due to Porcelain Tower + my research agreements.
Turn 160 Ideology is mythically fast; enough to push it at 2nd world congress
I use a faith-purchased GE to rush Statue of Liberty, and finish Rationalism for even more science boosts. At this point, I haven't even touched my ideology, apart from the 3 tenets; everything has gone into Rationalism + Commerce.
I neglect my ideology until the end; Rationalism/Commerce advance the win condition
The GPT is starting to get obscene, and I'm buying out every single City State on the map. Everyone loves me because I'm sending them trade routes, and at one point in the game I've got 6 concurrent research agreements.
Towards endgame, I pop my great scientists for a mediocre 3500-4000 beakers a piece, but 3 or 4 of them is enough to launch me into Information Era via the top of the tech tree. The World Leader vote is triggered, and I faith Purchase another scientists to hit Globalization before the vote takes place. Come Turn 230, I own every city state, have diplomats in every cap, and control 39/38 votes needed to win the first vote.
Rushed straight to globalization; no other tech matters
the +5 delegates from globalization give me a win
In Conclusion
This Civ is incredibly dumb. It has no counterplay to an aggressive neighbour, can't compete in world fair/international games/ISS, bad science, bad production, and lives&dies by it's starting land. However, its one gimmick of rushing a diplomatic victory is the fastest Deity win condition I've ever seen.
Posted Oct 5, 2025, 3:54 AM UTC